Michael Bay, Elves see ‘Way Out’

Director teams with 'Top Chef' producers on reality series

Death-defying challenges. Stunning visuals. Intimidating locations. Michael Bay and Magical Elves. That’s the package for a reality skein dubbed “One Way Out” that is being shopped to TV buyers this week.

Bay is teaming Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, whose Magical Elves shingle is home to “Top Chef” and “Project Runway” (the original Bravo version), for his first foray into unscripted TV. “One Way Out” is described as an action-adventure show that pits everyday people against one another in a competition

that involves physical challenges as well as the PSYOPS of creating alliances and keeping their own “secret pasts” hidden from other players.

“We are reinventing the genre, showing just how far people will go when they are stripped of their bare necessities and forced to do whatever it takes to survive,” Bay said in announcing the project.

Lipsitz noted that Bay’s signature work on the bigscreen (think “Transformers” and pyrotechnics) will bring the project “a fresh perspective that’s not just new to reality TV, but new to television, period.”

Bay and Magical Elves were brought together by their mutual reps at WME.